Why is brethyn so important to you?

When I close my eyes with brethyn in my hand, I think about my childhood. The West Wales landscape, light rain, sheep on the hills, primrose, the streams where I would play as a child – there’s something very special about brethyn. It’s like a teddy bear. Who couldn’t like it? The earliest memory I have of brethyn is looking at a dress in my mother and father’s wedding photo. My mother was a professional seamstress and had been an apprentice for a company in Swansea for over five years before she got married, and she had made her own cream flannel wedding dress. I never saw the dress, but I did see the dress recycled into many other different things – a dress for the doll, a petticoat for me and my sister Valerie, a Sunday apron. Back then everything was recycled.

This looks very warm.

This is very special to me because it’s made from my mother’s wedding dress. The fabric was cream but I dyed it black. When I left home to be a student this is one of the things my mother gave to me, so it’s very special. I wore it last Christmas over a white Liberty shirt and black high waisted Donna Karan trousers and black heels.

What’s the biggest influence on your style?

I left Wales as a young girl when I was 23 and got a job in Kent. I missed home a lot, the people and way of life there was different, so you start to become more aware of yourself, of what kind of person you are. What kind of Welsh person are you? I could design clothes and loved brethyn from an early age, so I started to make a few dresses. In the 80s and 90s it grew and so I gave the clothes the label ‘Celtic Couture a la Branwen ap Harri’. I wanted to escape the traditional and create something simple and modern – simple yet stylish. I took my dresses to a few boutiques on the King’s Road and Sloane Street and to Fortnum and Mason and Harrods. They were very interested and I sold a few, that’s how the business started.

There’s something very regal about this dress, like a princess.

This dress is called Gwenllian and my sister has exactly the same dress, but in different colours and that one’s called Nest. I used to wear it years ago for picnics and to listen to opera.

What pleasure do you get from the Welsh brethyn?

It gives me great pleasure. One of the things I like is to dress my donkey, his name’s Gwyno, in brethyn. I put a coat on him and sometimes a hat and then I put carriers on each side and we go to the shop – just me and him.

This is an unusual dress.

I used to wear this a lot and I still do sometimes, to go out to dinners. I used to think that everyone turned to look at me when I walked into a room wearing this dress with heels. I love the colour. I had many orders for this dress and I sold it in the same boutique as Mary Quant sold her clothes on the King’s Road.

This is very unique.

The idea behind this dress is a combination of the traditional Welsh bed gown and petticoat. Not only is the material Welsh but the idea is also Welsh. I designed this dress when I did the Ikebana show for the BBC in the early 70s. Ikebana is the symbolic craft of arranging flowers and branches through Buddhist Zen.

Where did this heavy cloak come from?

This is reversible. My mother and I designed this together. I wear it with a big bag, gloves and a hat. When I design I don’t think about the garment by itself, but about the look as a whole.

Are you going to keep these clothes forever?

They are going to the National Wool Museum in Dre-fach, Felindre. Most of the garment are made from brethyn bought at the Cambria Mill that’s also at the museum. Unexpected things happen in life. I never thought that when I was designing and creating these dresses that they would be going back home. But now of course I can go and see them whenever I want.